Paris’s Role in the Peace Talk
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Randa Takieddine - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu did not, and will not heed the calls of his friends and allies to freeze settlement building and suspend the decision to re-allow the construction of settlements after September 26. But in truth, no one in the Arab world had any illusions that Netanyahu will respond to the calls of the U.S. administration or the European Union (EU), specifically the calls of his friend French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who urged him to extend the freeze on settlements.

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How did They Deceive Abu-Mazen?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - (Opinion) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deserves the award for the world's Worst Negotiator. Currently, he can celebrate one of two possibilities: either negotiations will be terminated, or settlement construction will be suspended. Despite my appreciation of the noble man, he made a mistake by simplifying the demands of the Palestinian people into one request; namely that all settlement constructions are ceased. This has now become the highest of his ambitions.

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Israeli forces 'Tasered' activist on Gaza aid boat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Yonatan Shapira, an Israeli air force pilot turned peace activist, said he was shocked with a Taser gun while passively resisting arrest. And a British journalist said he was "ambushed" and "almost strip-searched" by commandos on board the vessel. Israel's military had said the vessel was seized peacefully on Tuesday. It declined to comment on the activists' accounts. Earlier this year, Israeli commandos killed nine people in clashes on board a Turkish ship trying to reach Gaza.

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David Grossman, a Man Who Owns Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

In his remarkable recent New Yorker profile of the Israeli writer David Grossman, George Packer observes that the heroine of Grossman’s new novel “embraces the breadth of Israel’s tragedy, a country that can take nothing for granted, not even its own existence.” (The novel, “To the End of the Land,” is newly available in English.) Yet Packer’s lengthy article, though tinged with tragedy to be sure, is colored as well by resolve, even triumph. For the Grossman he portrays is a steadfast Israeli patriot, a man who owns Israel.

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Abbas pressured to halt peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian political factions yesterday urged the president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon direct peace negotiations with Israel after it failed to extend a partial freeze on construction of West Bank settlements. But Mr Abbas held back yesterday on a threat to quit the talks after the expiration of the freeze at midnight Sunday. He told reporters in Paris he would not rush to respond to Israel’s resumption of settlement construction, but would first consult with Palestinian and Arab leaders.

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Solving the West Bank settler problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Gabrielle Rifkind - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli construction freeze in the West Bank hangs like a dark cloud over the peace talks. The moratorium expired on 26 September and President Abbas has continuously said he will withdraw from negotiations if settlement activity resumes. Last-ditch attempts to save the talks from an early collapse are taking place behind the scenes. Meanwhile Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has called on the settler movement to show restraint and only allow only small-scale construction to resume. Tensions remain very high.

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Israel navy halts Gaza-bound boat without violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Aisha Mohammed - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli naval forces on Tuesday intercepted a catamaran carrying nine Jewish activists toward the Gaza Strip, encountering no resistance as they took control of the sailboat and escorted it to shore, the military said. The incident occurred four months after a deadly Israeli raid on an international flotilla, in which nine Turkish activists, one of them a dual Turkish-American citizen, were killed in clashes with naval commandos. The Irene, like the earlier flotilla, had been trying to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza.

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Fatah official: Serious progress in unity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A Fatah Revolutionary Council member said Monday that "serious progress" has been made in finalizing a unity deal between his party and Hamas following a meeting in Damascus over the week. Faisal Abu Shahla told Ma'an that representatives from the rival parties agreed on three disputed points of four during the Damascus meeting, which have thus far stalled the ratification of the Egyptian-backed unity deal.

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A One-to-Two-State Solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Robert Wright - (Blog) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

This week’s bad news from the West Bank — the resumption of settlement construction after a 10-month moratorium, just as a new round of peace talks had gotten underway — didn’t much dampen optimism among seasoned Middle East watchers. That’s because there wasn’t much optimism to dampen. For the past few years, more and more people who follow these things have been saying that the perennial goal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — a two-state solution — will never be reached in any event. These experts fall into two camps.

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Israel jails Arab activists for vague ‘contact with a foreign agent’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - September 22, 2010 - 12:00am

A vague security offence of “contact with a foreign agent” is being used by Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, to lock up Arab political activists in Israel without evidence that a crime has been committed, human rights lawyers alleged this week. The lawyers said the Shin Bet was exploiting the law to characterise innocent or accidental meetings between members of Israel’s large Arab minority and Arab foreign nationals as criminal activity.

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